As students leave school to go home, a few students get out on their bikes and go for a ride as the inaugural members of Bike Club. Born from junior Will Brush’s love of the outdoors and biking itself, the club has started off with multiple rides along local trails and a meet up at Hannover Bikes, in Overland Park, where they learned about how to fix and maintain the parts of a bike.

“First, it looks good on a college application, starting something and deviating from the beaten path looks good on a college application,” Brush said. “I also enjoy biking, I like getting out into nature a lot, I love hiking, I love backpacking. I want to start doing bike packing, which is like backpacking but biking. I’ve always loved to do it since I was a little kid, and I think that a lot of other people like to do it too, so might as well just make it a club.”

Alongside Brush and his love for the outdoors, club sponsor Travis Gatewood also has an extensive history with cycling. Known for riding his bike all around Kansas City, Gatewood supported forming a bike club with enthusiasm. While making a club may sound simple, Bike Club had to get approval from the administration to go out on their rides after school and manage the admin’s concerns.

“The approval process took a while because of some of the safety concerns with being off campus, somebody getting injured, the transportation, all those kinds of things,” Gatewood said. “So we’re able, once we were approved, to get two quick rides in, but then winter hit, and so we’re kind of rebooting it now.”

Besides the admin’s concerns delaying their start, there have been minor issues with advertising, a crucial part of getting people into the club..

“I’ve been meaning to put up some posters with the GroupMe QR code on it but I haven’t really gotten around to it,” Brush said. “I’ve been busy after school quite a few days in a row, or gone, or sick or something like that, but we’re trying to get more members, especially underclassmen, because that’s what’s gonna keep it going, because I’m not going to be here in two years.”

Despite challenges advertising and schedule conflicts, Bike Club has started the year off strong, with the club being an enjoyable experience for its members. With the club offering rides along the trails of Leawood and Overland Park in addition to experiences to learn about bikes themselves, it’s very attractive to those who want to get out and relax after school with a group.

“It’s been really fun,” junior Erin Dockweiler said. “I love being able to be with all my friends and just bike around after school. It’s a good debrief time after school, so I can get home and start work. But yeah, we’re getting ready to start our spring season because it’s still a little too cold out.”

The club members have been involved in the club’s development throughout the year, offering suggestions on how to expand, fun things to do with the club, and spreading news of the club by word of mouth. Sophomore Clara Brush–Will’s sister–had a unique opportunity to give feedback and input about the club and its activities.

“As [Will’s] sister, I would definitely give him constructive criticism on how he’s running the club, how we can involve more people, you know, just build the club,” Clara said. “I think a lot of people have been doing that. A lot of the members that are pretty involved have been giving ideas on how to grow and how to do some more fun activities. It’s just been really cool having this experience.”

With input from members and potential for increased organization soon, Bike Club is aiming to improve and expand its operations, possibly beyond South. The goal of expanding beyond the school was part of Will’s initial idea for Bike club, imagining it as a district wide club rather than tied directly to the school. Although the idea of a district wide club may be considered ambitious by some, Bike club leadership can see it as a possibility for the near future.

“Once you get a core that’s passionate, it doesn’t even have to be necessarily school affiliated,” Gatewood said. “It’s just, now that we got a core and say, ‘Okay, we got 10 or 20 people that love biking, we’re going to create a schedule going into the school year next year, this is where we’re going to be.’ We’d love to do that and I could even see it posted at local bike shops. ‘Are you high schoolers looking to ride? Here’s where we’re going to be.’ Let’s get some more rides in as a school, and then see what we can do over summer and advertise it in local businesses or across the district, and try to grow it by senior year so we can hand it off in a bigger place after spring of ‘27.”